Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Serious food...silly prices!

Did you guess the store that I shopped at yet? It was double-ad Wednesday at Sunflower Market (Today's title is their slogan) so I stopped in to check their prices and grab some bulk food items. You can run into a lot of people there...especially with your shopping cart due to the narrowness of the aisles but I will be more careful next time! I was excited to find the same yogurt I bought at Whole Foods for 69 cents each rather than the 89 cents I paid on Monday. Their whole-wheat pasta was comparable to the grocery store price for regular pasta so I picked up some penne to try. I noticed they have a lot of processed food masquerading as healthy food so it is still important to read the labels. Their organic produce seems to be a little less than Whole Foods but is anyone really surprised by that? We are going to make our own granola bars tomorrow and I was able to find the ingredients I needed at a very reasonable price in the bulk food bins. I think that may be my favorite part of the store. For some reason if you take the same old food items that you are selling in other areas of the store, put them in cute wooden barrels and stick a metal scoop in them, suddenly they are very appealing. It is also nice if you need a 1/2 cup of raw sunflower seeds for a recipe and don't want to invest in a large package of them. I abstained from the wooden barrels full of candy which would have undone all the progress we have made this week. As with my trip to Whole Foods, I had meat department issues but this time it was the smell coming from that area that kept from getting closer and investigating. It reminded me of our trips to Larry's Great Western Meats when I was a kid...stinky! They must have been grinding sausage or something. I noticed in the freezer case you can purchase bison and elk meat. I am sure somehow that would fit in with our new plan but I am not that adventurous yet.

This afternoon we went as a family to Food, Inc. I was glad the kids saw it because I want them to know why we are doing this. Keith was totally interested but Jack couldn't get out of their fast enough. Can you believe an almost 7 year old doesn't care how corn gets into 80% of our food products? I found the previews before the movie were inappropriate for children so if you are thinking of taking your own kids, get there a little late. It also shows the slaughtering of animals so if that is something that would be upsetting for them it is best to leave them home. After seeing the film, I am more motivated than ever to keep doing this. I could spend hours writing on what I learned from it but really it is best to go see it for yourself. Amazingly enough, 3 out of 4 of us were hungry after the movie so we stopped by Archi's for some quick Pad Thai. I don't know what all the ingredients are, but with the exception of the noodles, everything looks like it does when it's found in nature and that is a good start...